La Barra, Soccer, Philly discussed on Men In Blazers

Men In Blazers
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Automatic TRANSCRIPT

You thought you were all of a sudden in South America. Like la Barra brava was dancing, it was present. It was vibrant. It was an RFK. There were years from, let's say, 2010 to 2018 where they just didn't put a good product on the field, man. And that's the thing about D.C., as we talk about, you talk about all that passion, all those fans. I talk about all that history. These people know, man, like they're not these are not fans that will just show up to watch a meddling side. You know, if you put a crap product out there, they resent that. All right, let's touch on those big market teams to Dallas is of the world. Chicago, Houston, even New York, and it paints me to say Philly because Philly's actually successful. And I think they've got a very interesting model and do things in a very good way. But you need to be relevant in your market, especially Major League Soccer they need to have relevance in these major markets. I mean, how do you improve these markets? Look, let's start with say like Dallas and Colorado, I think those teams are hamstrung by their stadium in a way. They are remnants of this MLS one where the soccer specific stadiums were these exurban things, part of bigger developments. And we got to say this, the stadium, a new stadium, isn't like a panacea for everything. I mean, you got to look at the Houston dynamo when you talk about that. They're in one of the biggest stadiums in the biggest cities, excuse me, in America. Again, diverse multicultural along soccer history. And a lot of times they can't get anybody to come to that stadium. So it's tricky, man. If there were silver bullet solution to this, man, I would tell you, but it's complicated. Maybe they can figure it out. Maybe the professors at MLS university can figure this one out for us. It's sad because as a player in the league, when I used to play in Major League Soccer, we had like a term between us. Soccer Saturday. And there was nothing worse than playing soccer on a Saturday at 1 p.m. in Dallas. In that humidity on that hard field, those moments, you know, remember back then when MLS used to cater for that soccer Saturday audience and listen, it pains me to say, but you're right about Colorado. Man, I scored the first goal in the history of that stadium. So I want to see it be around for a hundred years.

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